Duty Session 256: Threat to the Harvest

During the Harvest Festival, there are many who take to the fields to bring in the summer crops. However, there are also those who would like to claim those bountiful harvests for themselves. The Hunter's Guild has hired Adventurers to protect those Landers who have been tasked with working the fields. It sounds like a boring, simple task, but they wouldn't spend the money hiring defenders if there weren't real dangers looming.

OOC: This quest is only available during the Harvest Festival. This quest is largely 'Combat'-concept based.

Difficulty:    Easy
Rec. Party:    3+
Rewards:       1
World Rewards: None

Prophylaxis
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Finally, the summer is drawing to a close. Autumn's chill is settling over the land, the trees have begun to change their color and now blaze like wildfire in the light of the setting sun. Mushrooms are replete in the forests and plains, and finally Prophylaxis' hat is back in fashion. But most importantly, the Landers are getting ready to bring in the last, largest harvest of the year.

The issue being that those very same fields-- particularly the ones in the breadbasket of the Ninetails Dominion-- are under heavier threat than ever before. Prophylaxis spent a very valuable resource to make sure that these fields in particular would survive to make it to the harvest, and he's not about to let a bunch of undead, bands of bandits or murderous gangs of sundry monsters ruin all his hard, dragon-slaying work.

This is why a handful of the Scale Emblem Alliance's elite membership is presently... camped out near the periphery of the fields, waves of wheat at their back. In front of them, the wilderness sprawls darkly and filled with danger.

Prophylaxis wonders idly if the Landers sing any of their songs to the tune of dueling banjos.
Vertina
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

There's trouble that needs punching. And kicking. And likely setting on Fire, possibly by punching or kicking, because that's the way Scale Emblem rolls. What more reason do you need?

Okay the fact that Vertina runs a tavern and any holiday season is going to be big business and if something happens to cut the supplies short that's bad for business probably also matters. It's important to be able to keep paying customers and busy Alliance members fed and drinking.

But she's still a fighter at heart and mostly here for that. The others are just peripheral bonuses.
Schneider
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Schneider is here, too. He's part of Scale, but would not characterize his position as anywhere near elite. He's definitely rank and file. Not too rank, luckily, he uses the bath frequently. As to what files anyone has on him, you'd have to ask Scale's spymaster? But in any case, he's here and as ready to help as he can be. With a heavy tome open in his hands, and he's paying more attention to it than to the situation, at least for the moment.
Lin
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

It's a wonderful day in the neighborhood. Lin delights in the cool, crisp season air as he makes his way to the location the Hunters' Guild job states. He waves a hand across the grain as he walks, humming as he ponders the inner workings of everything and nothing. "Hiiiii!" He calls out when in range of the camp. The Pooka is gloriously unaware that he's the only non-SEA Adventurer here.
Amalthea
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

    Amalthea is here. How she manages to break away from all that paperwork is a mystery, but it's all handled and done with, so she may as well help when called to do so, drumming her fingers on the hilt of her sword as she eyes the wilderness, lips pursed into a faint line.
    Hum hum.
    Anything is better than all that paperwork.
Setsuna
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0


    Setsuna is relaxed, laying back against his mount as they seem to be waiting, while flipping through a journal of his. " So Doc, any idea about when something may happen, or is it just something may happen? " It wasn't that he was impatient or anything but the answer may decide if Setsuna closes his eyes to wait or starts back at the beginning of his journal and go through it once again. " Also does anyone know a 8 letter word for , a jumbled letter puzzle?"
Prophylaxis
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

"I mean, supposedly there are going to be monsters," Prophylaxis answers at Setsuna with an honest shrug. There certainly doesn't seem to be a great many 'monsters' emerging from the wilderness, at least at first. A flock of birds descends enmasse into the fields and begins pecking at the readily accessible grain. And of course /being/ birds, they are both skittish and extremely difficult to catch. They're birds! They can fly! You can't fly, you're just an adventurer.

A more delicate and/or creative touch is probably needed here.

"Why didn't they just put up scarecrows or something...?"
Schneider
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Schneider looks around at the fields, sighs as he spots the birds. "Well, there's threat number one," he laments, and prepares to unleash catastrophic fire on them. Except wait, that'd incinerate the crops, too. OK, Plan B is ... summoning an air elemental to sweep the birds from the sky. The air elemental swooshes low over the fields, and where it passes, the stalks sway, but the birds are tumbled and thrown, and they fly away dazed when the elemental passes.
Vertina
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

"Since when have they done the obvious thing that would make it easier for us?," Vertina retorts. "Besides, that'd be boring!" About the type of answer you'd expect from her.

Boring this is not, and boy oh boy are those birds going to be annoying. "That said, let's put a quick end to this." The Salamander martial artist makes several fluid gestures, and the aetheral energy can be seen whisping about with her hands as she does so. "Besides, some birds are smart enough to tell a scarecrow is fake. So we'll handle this our way." She snaps up her arms and thrusts them out, airbending a powerful blast of wind over part of the fields to just outright fling the birds away from it.
Lin
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

The danger lurking out in the shadowy wilderness also seems lost on Lin. Exuding enthusiasm, he paces about the camp. "Eight letters? How many letters is anagram?" He offers suggestions to Setsuna, "What about crossword? Anagram? Acrostic?"

But before long the first threat wave shows up. Lin looks disappointed. It'll probably get better soon but he's still not impressed by birds. He reaches for his belt and grabs his spellbook, flipping through it quickly before casting a spell. Lightning streaks down from the sky to strike his hand, and a loud clap of thunder ripples a shockwave across the wheat field.
Amalthea
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

    ... Birds.
    Of course. The bane of crops in any farming simulator.
    While others resort to magic and use of air, Amalthea's solution is...
    Well. She spent 90 JP already on her skill tree to learn this long ago, so she resorts to it once again.

    Menu:
        Skills:
            >Throw Stone

    Kicking up a rock from the ground into her hand and hucks it.
    In an instant a bird explodes in a puff of feathers and red pixels.
    A squad of the birds closest to it gets the picture and backs off fast with a resounding series of dismayed squawks.
Setsuna
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0


    Setsuna looks at the birds as they distract him for a moment from whatever he is doing. Watching the birds for a moment he shakes his head and goes back to the puzzle, "Anagram...hmm Anagrams?" He counts the letters, " Hey that is it . " With that he stands up and stretches as he looks at the birds for a moment before he begins to form a ball of air in his hand. " Ok so just birds? We get to be the scarecrows? " With the ball of air formed he tosses it into the air and lets it expand trying to scatter the birds, but they simply come back.
Prophylaxis
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Birds are famously, chronically stubborn creatures, but even they know to get out of dodge when a bunch of angry adventurers seem hell-bent on keeping them from their meal. The whole point was that this was supposed to be an easy feeding! And now they're being accosted by air elementals, blasts of wind and some weird mushroom flashing bright lights at them! Worst of all, that large lady just hucked a stone like the first fastball pitch at a baseball game, and roundly obliterated one of their friends!

The birds retreat, swearing vengeance. None of them are corvids, so they'll probably forget within a day or so.

That's tomorrow's problem, thankfully.

But when Amalthea's stone sails through the fields, it doesn't just land with a thump like she'd expected. Instead, it bounces off something that looks and sounds very much like a person's skull. Prophylaxis' lips draw into a frown as he goes to inspect the unconscious victim, and glances up with some alarm. "Bandit scout, I'd wager. Looks like we've got some ne'er do wells sneaking around in the fields. Let's pick them off before they can report back to their friends in the woods, hm?"
Schneider
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Schneider spots those figures skulking through the fields as the winds blow through, and he grumbles. "They seem to be up to no good," he agrees. Another golem, this one rising up out of the earth between the rows of crops, to move between the rows and uproot these bandits, tossing them clear of the fields with great force. Because with great force comes great hang time. And none of them land gently.
Vertina
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

"Figures the birds were just the first 'problem' to warm us up." Vertina crouches down, putting a hand to the ground. Fire may be her main element but she's got tight ties with Earth as well, and is trying to get a pickup on people moving as they're trying to stay out of visual sight by 'feeling' for their steps. Unfortunately she can't get too potent with the ability, because she doesn't want to disrupt the fields or the Landers working in them. That would defeat the point of them being here after all.
Lin
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

"Anagrams!" Lin bounces on his toes, snapping his spellbook shut with a satisfied grin. Birds squawk and flap off into the sky. "And that's the birds." Talk of bandits is clearly much more his speed. Spellbook at the ready he squints his eyes, staring out into the field. He does not have much luck spotting them, sadly. "Come out in the open! All we want to do is talk!"
Setsuna
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0


    Setsuna looks at his wolf and looks in the direction of the bandits with a whistle the wolf stands up and shakes himself awake for a moment before looking in the direction of the scouts and then laying back down with a huff . All Setsuna can do is sigh heavily and shakes his head, " Well you are no help." Turning back towards the scouts he holds his hand above the earth and pulls up several rocks into the air and sends them flying in the scouts direction, like throw stone, but with multiple stones.
Amalthea
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

    Amalthea looks somewhat smug as her stone obliterates that bird and sends more scattering. But the ~thunk~ of hearing said stone land on someone'e skull makes the old paladin frown.
    Amalthea... Picks up another stone.
    And hucks it in an arc into the field in the same general area to see of she gets lucky again with another scout in the area before drawing her sword.
Prophylaxis
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Let those who are without sin cast the first stone.

...Or just your friendly batch of murderhobos from the Scale Emblem Alliance (+1).

A barrage of rocks from on high sends a half-dozen lightly armored scouts scurrying out of their hiding places, but that just means that they're easy prey for the likes of Schneider's golem or Amalthea's sword. None of them talk to Lin, but only because the only words they manage before being knocked out and/or straight up murdered is 'AAAAAAAH!' and 'OH GODDESSES THE FIELDS ARE HAUNTED.'

But where there are scouts, there is always a larger warband. A smarter bandit would have considered the fact that their scouts utterly failed to report back as a sign that they should maybe reconsider their assault. This one, a particularly large boar-man wielding a rather sizable tetsubo, is unfortunately a bit /too/ pigheadded to reconsider his assault.

A band of swashbuckling, poorly armed brigands swarm out from their leader's flanks, clearly attempting to capture some of the Landers to try and buy the field with their lives while the adventurers are busy dealing with their boss.

...Are you just going to let that happen, Scale Emblem (+1)?
Schneider
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Schneider's earth elemental crumbles back to the soil from which it was made, but there are more bandits, it seems. He chants, "Zarzardo Zarzardo Bakemono!" and some other words that are not as easy to make out as the darkness gathers. It's like the words themselves are strangled. But this spell is not Venom, more's the pity, but a low-grade lead-in. It's like Venom-Jr. It starts off as a small whirlwind of dark energy and surrounds a target, exanguinating them messily. As if there were a non-messy way to squeeze out someone's blood and spray it all around.
Vertina
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Once the main group of Bandits are out in the open and she can see them Vertina is quickly on the move. Times like this it's best to throw caution to the wind and strike faster and harder than your enemies can launch their own attack! Which would be why the Salamander dashes straight for the center of the gang.

It's brash and reckless, but it isn't without some consideration to combat tactics. Getting close puts her in her strongest combat zone, while getting her inside the effective range of the crossbow fire. The first bandit that comes to meet her swings his cudgel.. only for it to snap in half as she catches with between the blades of her clawed gauntlet, and the punch continues to slam into his face. He hasn't even finished falling over before the Salamander has turned and let loose on several of his colleagues in a frenzy of slashing strikes, the clawed fist weapons tearing easily through their meager leather armor.
Lin
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Lin's offer to talk has worked. Clearly. These bandits have all come to engage in a friendly exchange of ideas and work out some kind of friendly trade for the grain. They're raising their weapons to show how valuable they'll be in trade, and running as fast as they can to get to the good deals.

Not even slightly a correct interpretation, but Lin briefly entertains it as he watches the lead bandit rush into the field. He raises his spellbook with a frown, flipping through it looking for inspiration. The direct approach seems fitting - he chants the spell quickly and a dome of shimmering light forms around the Landers.
Amalthea
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

    Amalthea... Casts that first stone alright. And when the scouts come running out she puts as many as she can to the sword.
    Then comes the boar-man and his flunkies.
    Amalthea places herself in their path, shield bared, shoving and swording bandits away from the Landers in defensive formation beside Lin's barrier.
Setsuna
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0


    Setsuna looks at the brigands and tilts his head before shaking his head, " Do these bandits know they are weaker then goblins? Do you think that makes them feel bad?" As he asks the question he pulls in more and more magical energy into him and unleashes the magic through the shadows of the boar-man and spikes of darkness erupt from the shadow trying to stab into the boar-man. It's not a complete success but it does manage to do some damage to the brigand.
Prophylaxis
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

"It's a little depressing, isn't it?" Prophylaxis answers Setsuna with a sigh as the boar-man beats his mace against the implacable bulwark that is Amalthea's shield. It doesn't take long for the rest of the party to bring him to his knees-- in Setsuna's case, literally. Tenebrous tentacles anchor the pigman where he stands while a swarm of oozing darkness thoroughly exsanguinates him. It's... a really kind of brutal way to go.

The Landers, meanwhile, are accosted by the remaining bandits... Who find their approach stymied by a shining wall of light! They hammer helplessly against it for a moment, before Vertina comes up from behind and utterly eviscerates any who don't surrender.

Hey, at least blood is probably pretty good fertilizer, right?

As the last bandit falls and his fellows give up the fight, something... seems to go wrong. The air goes utterly, dead silent as the chirping of evening birds is smothered under a blanket of menace. The wilderness stirs... and disgorges a surging tide of dire animals, eyes wide with... fear? They're not coming out of the woods to /attack/ necessarily, any injury they inflict is largely incidental. Instead, they seem to be running /from/ something deep in the forest. Prophylaxis frowns, his own magic coming undone prematurely as he reassesses the situation. "We need to divert that stampede before it tramples the crops," he orders, "Prepare for whatever's got them spooked, too! We've got company incoming!"
Schneider
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Schneider doesn't think he can use any version of Venom on the stampeding herd. Instead, he raises both hands, and shouts a word of power. The earth itself rises to form an earthen berm around the fields, rising up, four feet, six, eight. The herd would need to climb over it, and hooves aren't built for climbing, so they're forced to go around.
Amalthea
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

    The the boar-man and his men handled, things... Change drastically. The birds going silent is never a good sign.
    So when the dire animals come rushing out of the wilderness, Amalthea begins storming about, every stomp of her foot causing the earth to shift, raising barriers and defensive bulwarks! ... The issue is that Earth magic is not her forte, so she doesn't get far or get many defenses up before she's neck-deep in dire animals charging by her and pummelling down her HP as she grouses.
Setsuna
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0


    Setsuna looks at the stampede and then turns and runs the other way, yep Setsuna ran away from the fight. Only to get on his lazy wolf mount and kicks it into action running ahead of the stampede as fast as they can to put themselves between the stampede and the crops. Once they pull ahead he runs the wolf to infront of the group and with a gesture the wolf howls into the air, echoing and as if for only a moment it is like the wolf called lightning itself as lightning strikes behind the wolf. If nothing else it was probably a bit of a scary sight.
Lin
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Lin looks smug, maintaining his barrier as Amalthea beats back anything that gets too close to the Landers. He snaps his book shut with a grin, putting one hand on his hip and looking around during the eerie silence. "That was almost too easy. Festival stuff has normally been harder than that." But it is. It very much is. The stampede thunders out into the open, heading for the fields. Another spell.. come on, there's got to be 'protection from stampede' in here somewhere. Aha! Lin shouts a long string of magical syllables, gesturing grandly with one hand. A large portion of the ground turns to sand.. then softens even more. Quicksand!
Vertina
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

After dealing with the bandits, things got quiet. Too quiet... but not so quiet that Vertina couldn't take time to rest a bit, have a drink, even share some of her drink with the workers though they're wise to not drink too much until after they're done working. It does help ease the sting of aches from the long hours, though.

Then the other shoe finally drops as creatures swarm out of the forest. "They're... not trying to attack. They're running -away- from something. Something big.." That somewhat crazy sharp-toothed grin of hers returns. "I'll find out what!" Which means, well, she's going to run -towards- it so she can get a look at what's coming that could spook all these creatures!

Which means running straight into the stampede. Yes, you saw that right. Vertina puts her athletic skills to practice though, weaving and winding through the reckless rampage of animals with all the finess of a soccer star maneuvering through the opponent's field to get a clear shot at the goal.
Prophylaxis
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Vertina takes off for a run, leaving her compatriots to deal with a tide of terrified beasts! How rude. Fortunately, the others are well equipped enough to deal with this predicament. Earthen berms and barricades rise around the periphery of the field, herding most of the beasts off to one side. A few massive stags go to leap chaotically over the obstacle to continue their frantic retreat, but end up stumbling into a pool of quicksand instead! They're forced to divert to get around, but the stampede continues regardless. It's only when Setsuna charges in astride his mighty (and sleepy) wolf that the creatures seem inclined to actually run off into the wild again. The field is safe...

...From them.

The trees shake and tremble. Ripe fruit tumbles from their branches. Something... /huge/ squeezes its enormous bulk between thick tree trunks, snapping them like twigs in its passage. It's... it's.......

"Oh my gosh, it's a grunty."

But not just any grunty. It's as tall as three Xanders and about as wide as six. It's covered in thick, brown fur and mottled hide. Its untended coat conceals a scrawling legend of scars carved into its flanks. Massive tusks emerge from its dripping, hungry maw.

It's the biggest grunty anyone here has ever seen.

...And it's scraping its hoof against the dirt as it makes to charge...!
Schneider
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Schneider boggles as the giant grunty is revealed. He asides to his Guildies, "Wish we could get this one back on the ranch. We'd have steaks and chops for a year." He considers. "So, I guess we start char-broiling it now."

He chants, "Brain, Brain dead. Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon. Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us! EXODUS!" When the incantation is complete, he hurls a fireball straight at the target, where it impacts with a roar.
Amalthea
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

    It takes Amalthea a good moment or so to wade out of the crazed and panicked dire animals, and she looks a little worse for wear once she's free, HP having taken a few dings in the kerfluffle.
    And then.
    Then she's faced down with the biggest...
    "That... That sure is a big Grunty." She concedes to the universe.
    She bull rushes it to meet the thing head on, gripping it by the tusks like one would grip a bull by the horns, glowing faintly as her strength is augmented and she starts trying to wrassle it down.
Vertina
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Vertina emerges from the tail end of the stampede just in time to see the overly bulk Grunty emerge from the woods and start chomping down on the fields directly. "Oh no you don't. If you're so hungry, have a taste of this!" Vertina pulls a bundle of mushrooms out of her inventory, drops it, and kicks it like a ball into the giant omnomnomer's face so it explodes in spores to daze and blind the thing so others have a chance to move in on it.
Lin
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

It was going well. Almost too well. Lin's quicksand diverted some animals and his confidence was far too high. When the final threat is revealed he takes a pair of steps back. "No no nonono!" The pooka flails in panic as the giant Grunty kicks the dirt with a mighty hoof and prepares to charge.

Lin rolls the pages of his spellbook across a thumb. All the way to the back. Short on time to decide, he goes for the largest spell he's got. He raises one hand to the sky while chanting the wordss of the spell, then swings it downwards forcefully. Lightning leaps from the sky, illuminating the area in a bright blue flash and turning into a purple afterimage. A loud crash of thunder follows.
Setsuna
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0


    Setsuna and Roki stare at the grunty and they both have the same look in the eye before they charge at the grunty seeming ready to take it on, not backing down to some giant stupid cow pig thing. Setsuna even drops extra speed on them with flashstep and as the wolf leaps forward to try to strike the Grunty. Roki's poor claws can't even seem to pierce the hide of the grunty and the grunty seems to continue to ignore no matter how much Setsuna and Roki try.
Prophylaxis
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

The Scale Emblem (+1) is comprised of some of the hardiest, most experienced raid-clearers in all of Yamato. But this... this is a grunty. Possibly even the gruntiest of grunties. Amalthea charges in to meet the monster before it can trample them all beneath its stomping hooves-- and she finds herself slowly being forced back by its incredible bulk. Setsuna and his wolf struggle to find a spot on the beast's hide that isn't a virtually impenetrable wall of flesh and fur. Lin summons a cascade of crashing lightning down on its head, even as Schneider hurls a fireball that seems to consume it utterly. The air is briefly filled with the smell of poorly-cooked bacon and it seems for a moment that they might have won... But, the monster seems little worse for wear as it stomps its way out of the smoke, having dislodged Amalthea in the course of the struggle. It prepares to charge again, only to be held in place when Prophylaxis traps it in a cage of stone... But even that begins to crack and fail. The monster is only down around 25% of its health bar-- and it's not slowing down at all...!

But then... Vertina acts. A mound of mushrooms is hurled into the beast's face, and the monster simply chomps into them, spore cloud and all, with all the relish of a sommelier dining on some exotic and possibly lethal delicacy. It burps and a cloud of spores dusts its dripping maw. 'Buhii~?' The beast bellows, licking its lips as it seems to finally take notice of the adventurers attacking it. It looks at them quizzically before belching another foul-smelling cloud of spores. Its belly rumbles unpleasantly, and the massive cow-pig snorts at the ground a couple of times before... turning about and trudging off, back into the woods.

...Apparently, because it's suffering from an upset tummy.

Prophylaxis stares agog at the beast's passage, even as the Landers rush in to offer their heartfelt thanks for the party's assistance. One of the monster's tusks (or, part of one tusk) seems to have snapped off in the scuffle, and is sitting there for the party to carve up for their own use. But...

"I want to catch that cowpig," Prophylaxis decides. "Did you see how cute it was!? Think of the grunties we could breed if we got ahold of that thing!! They'd be HUGE!"
Vertina
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Vertina smirks with her own amusement as the Dire Grunty trundles off with ill sounding grunts, dusting her hands off together. "The worst enemy of big eaters is gastorial distress." See she does do -some- thinking. Some times.

"... They would make good labor grunties," she agrees with Prophylaxis.
Setsuna
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0


    Setsuna watches the giant grunty walk off before turning back to the doctor and tilts his head. " You know if you like big animals you should spend some time on the seventh floor. " Stepping off of Roki he grabs a piece of the hor and tosses it to Roki as a chew toy. " I mean I am sure you could find a super giant grunty up there."
Schneider
Overworld - -18 - 10 - 0

Schneider just kind of watches the big grunty wander off. "Wait, wait, we're just letting it go?" he asks. But he's out of fireballs, or he'd have tossed more already. "We ought to track it down, at least..."